Tag: Nikolas Cassadine

Do you know what I remember most about young Elizabeth Webber? I remember two things.

1. I remember what a hellion she was when she first arrived. Like so many of daytime’s bad girls, Liz’s bark was far worse than her bite. For her rough exterior, she was just one more sad and lonely kid who desperately wanted to fit in, but had no idea how to do it. It’s what made her so likable and worth rooting for. Despite her awful behavior – it was hard to avoid rooting for her happiness. If anyone deserved happiness, she did. Enter, Lucky Spencer.

Lucky was smitten with Liz’s sister, Sarah Webber, and didn’t know that Liz, who was equally smitten with him, was alive. He couldn’t see past Sarah’s bright and shiny face. Sarah was the image of perfection. Elizabeth grew tired of being considered the Webber sister in need of perfecting. It made sense that she would want Lucky, who was as sad and lonely and as imperfect as she was.

2. I also remember Liz and Lucky after her rape. I know that for some fans the rape scene was Liz’s defining moment, but not for me. Having never been a fan of storylines in which bad girls are raped and then ‘go good’, I hated this one even more because clearly Rebecca Herbst had the range to transform Liz to an openly likable character without the manipulation of using sexual violence against the character to bring fans to her side. Liz and Lucky, after the rape, were about as endearing as any soap couple has ever been. Lucky was there to stand WITH (not just ‘by’) her as she figured out who she wanted to become, and what her life would mean to her after the assault. They defied anyone who would try to tear them apart, and they stood against the world together. It was one of the few teen storylines I’ve ever been able to watch or enjoy.

I remember Eilzabeth Webber as a far more complete character THEN, than the character she’s become now. For whatever reason, almost from the day Liz found Jason bleeding in the boxcar (post his finding Sonny and his beloved Carly together), the writers have decided that Liz would become that self-destructive teen again. This time they created a more subtle version of “teen Liz”, but this one is far more self-destructive and is taking everything and everyone around her down with her. She has repeatedly turned her world upside down, trying to find happiness where there isn’t necessarily any happiness to be had.

The irony is that during Lucky’ s addiction storyline, we learned that Liz felt betrayed by his addiction to painkillers. It felt, to her, like a rejection of their lives and their love together.

The soap reality is that Liz has been nursing a looming addiction of her own, one that keeps tearing her family apart and hurting everyone who dares to love or trust her. Elizabeth’s addiction is to impossible love affairs. Zander Smith. Ric Lansing. Jason Morgan. And now her obsession turns to Prince Nikolas Cassadine – her fiance’s brother. Why is she with Nik? Because as much as she ‘loves’ Lucky, she believes that she’s ‘in love’ with Nik. For now, given the fact that we get little more than ‘happy happy hump hump’ scenes from them, it feels more as if Liz is in LUST with Nik. Short of him leaving money on the table for her, or her leaving money on the table for him, it’s hard to tell their relationship apart from any other ‘transaction’. It’s just one more opportunity for Liz to hurt Lucky, and to remind him that he’ll never be enough for her. No one will.

If she was really looking for love, she’d look for someone whose life wouldn’t put her and her children’s lives at risk. (Isn’t ti time to cue Helena Cassadine?) She wouldn’t keep falling for men who encourage her penchant for infidelity and who treat her as if she’s only as good as the sex she gives them. They’d respect her and her conflicted feelings more than that. If she truly loved Lucky, she wouldn’t ask him to continue to sit back and watch her self-destruct when she clearly has no intention of changing her behavior. Liz’s idea of love is the equivalent of an extended hand over an open flame – unlike teen Liz, adult Liz keeps asking Lucky to put his hand in the flame with hers.

Many fans, myself included, want to see Lucky confront Liz, and tell her where to stick her ‘love’. Each new self-destructive relationship steals away more and more of what was once likable about this character – in part because she continues to steal a bit of Lucky’s soul along the way. ALL characters enter into relationships that exist on borrowed time. She’s hardly new at it. Liz just happens to be among the worst of GH characters who not only makes the jump to ‘new love’ more frequently than others, but she just can’t seem to end her former relationship before starting a new one. She’s one of the few GH characters who drags the victim of the former relationship (typically Lucky Spencer) kicking and screaming into the new one.

This time, Lucky was willing to walk away and leave her to find her ‘happiness’. Liz wouldn’t let him. She decided that she had to propose and lead him to believe that she wanted to share the rest of her life with him. For fans like me? We’ve had it to HERE with her constant justifications and rationalizations for her behavior. Is Liz worse than any other woman (or man) on this show? YES! Not because of her actions – because her actions are somewhat the same as others. What makes her worse is her inability to enage in serial monogamy and because of the lies she tells to cover her behavior.

There was a ‘good enough’ lie for each of her paternity ‘mishaps’.

There was a ‘good enough’ lie for her affair with Zander.

There was a ‘good enough’ lie for the first affair with Jason.

There is now a ‘good enough’ lie for sleeping around with Nik.

She’s doing this FOR Lucky, don’t you know?

She owes him! (Apparenly she owes him everything but the truth about not loving him.)

She wants to give him the family he never had. (Not realizing that she’s treating him as bad as his father has treated both him and his mother over the last several years). I’ve made that point earlier HERE.

She wants to make him happy. (Sleeping with your fiance’s brother brings him all kinds of kicks and giggles. She’s so right).

I remember the Elizabeth Spencer who couldn’t stop herself from telling Carly Corinthos what a bad mother she was to date a man who could put her children in danger, as well as telling Carly what a horrible human being she is. Liz is quickly headed into Carly Corinthos Jacks territory… and at this rate, the writers may end up offereing us Carly 2.0 mothering a teenaged Cam or Jake rebelling against the latest family upheaval, the newest stepdad, and the mom whose love life wrecks every bit of stability they’ve ever known. Liz is starting to make Carly, and every other woman she’s ever condemned, look a hell of a lot better.

For a number of reasons, I haven’t been watching much GH (yeah, even if you set aside the writers destroying Carly and Jax, the continued obsession with Sonny and Jason, the putridness of Jason and Liz – I just haven’t had as much interest in GH. Now… if only I could break the habit of watching even occasionally! ) I’m still wondering how the show managed to trick me into actually liking Robin – a character I’ve disliked for so long! I’m also trying to figure out why Spinelli drives me “less crazy” and why I’m rooting for Spinelli and Maxie. I love them.

I’ve tuned in enough to wonder what General Hospital writers plans are for Laura’s eventual disappearance. It seems too easy to simply send her back into a comatose state. It also seems a bit cruel to do that to fans who love Laura and don’t want to see her go back to that state. I’ve tried to buy into Laura’s desire to not see her sons because she doesn’t want them to get their hopes up that this time she’s ‘cured’ and that she’ll be home for good. Something just feels false about it. Why wouldn’t Laura want Lulu to have her brothers to comfort and support her if/when she (Laura) goes back under? Given Lulu’s own fragile mental health, why would she want her to be alone if things go bad, again?

Does anyone else wonder if Laura being awake is a figment of Lulu’s imagination? Considering the fact that the hospital staff is on Nikolas’ payroll, why wouldn’t anyone contact him to let him know that Laura is awake? Wouldn’t obsessed Scotty make sure the staff notified him of any change? Do the members of the hospital staff actually ‘see’ Laura or pretend to do so, for Lulu’s sake? Is that why Laura conveniently disappears whenever someone the family knows shows up (Nikolas, Tracy Q, etc)? Imaginary Laura would mean that once Lulu is completely well, it won’t be so cruel for her to lose her mother, because she was never truly back. It was the spirit of Laura Spencer that showed up to support Lulu, and that’s something Lulu could handle.

BTW, Genie Francis, no matter how brief her return, makes it evident that GH can never be the same without her. Why TPTB are so content to keep letting her go is a mystery to me. Laura anchors the old GH, the GH fans loved heart and soul, to the new GH. I’d love for the writers to use the option of having Laura decide to go off on her own adventures for a while, maybe with a plan to track down a permanent cure for her illness – with her family’s blessing and her mother at her side. They’d stay in touch with her, monitoring her progress and talking with her daily- in case she needs help. It’s not ideal, I know, but it’s a darned bit better than letting Luke travel the world and finding love again, while Laura remains tied to a chair, staring off into space for years at a time. The thought of Laura ‘out there’, happy, living life, serving some greater purpose is far more meaningful to, and respectful of, the love fans have for maintained for the character and Laura’s portrayer, Genie Francis. When Lulu loses Laura again it will feel as if we’re all losing her.

ATWT

You REALLY don’t have to work that hard to get the audience to dislike certain characters, daytime writers. Some of you take the line and push it as far as you can take it! You don’t have to do anything at all to get me to dislike ATWT’s Lily Walsh. I haven’t liked her since she was a teenaged girl, with few exceptions.

Heather Rattray wasn’t the most popular recast for the character, but I loved her. Lily had been a whining, sniveling, mewling character before Heather came along – Martha Byrne played her as the spoiled heiress she was. Heather gave adult Lily an edge. She was an unapologetic bitch goddess who REFUSED to feel bad for taking what she wanted. HR gave her the ‘Walsh’ edge. It was the one and only time I could believe that a whiner like Lily was raised by a cutthroat businessperson like Lucy Walsh. Sadly, it didn’t last long after the actress left the role. The writers preferred the ‘spoiled heiress’ approach (and even I missed seeing MB’s face in the role even if I didn’t care for her version of Lily!)

The only other time Lily was even slightly interesting to me was when she married Damian Godofallmen Grimaldi. True to form, the writers ruined that too. Lily cheated on Damian with Holden… cheated in the belltower of a CHURCH, no less. Damian forgave her and Lily and Damian went on to create some of the hottest scenes in ATWT history – during the period of Damian’s recovery. Sex scenes? No, Lily and Damian never needed them. They had a smoldering passion that would have made a sex scene anti-climactic, literally and figuratively. Slight touches and shared glances were enough to communicate more about the passion they felt, than all of the Holden/Lily sex scenes, combined.

So, what have the writers done to reaffirm anti-Lily fans’ beliefs that the character is more often a waste of space than not? They shove Lily back into ‘revenge sex’ mode. That woman has had more ‘revenge sex’ than any other daytime (or prime time) character I know. It’s how she lost her virginity for crying out loud! She slept with Dusty to teach Holden a lesson.

Imagine that. Lily has revenge sex for decades, her son can’t get laid by the man he loves. What a wacked out set of priorities ATWT’s writers have when it comes to telling love stories (Nuke) and lust stories (Holden/Lily/any third partner).

As much as the character has always annoyed me, it annoys me MORE that viewers are put in the position of faulting Lily for being a careless mother in order to have revenge sex with Mike, after believing that Holden was about to get close with Carly, again. Seriously, writers? Incredibly rich women like Lily would have a staff of nannies on call 24/7. She wouldn’t have to run off to meet her lover ‘assuming’ someone would show up to take care of them.

She was so eager to have sex that she was willing to leave a child she nearly lost in the care of a child who’s had a history of emotional difficulties, without knowing that an adult was supervising them until their father arrived? BULL! Ethan falling down a hole is just punishment for Lily’s actions? BULLCRAP! You’re also asking the audience to accept Ethan’s pain as part of Lily’s consequences.

Children are plot devices to YOU, writers, not to the audience – fictional or not. Yes, yes, Lily’s at fault, and this storyline is awful no matter what the outcome is supposed to be. Possible outcomes: A Lilden reunion? Holden fighting for custody? Jack, done with Janet AND Carly, running to Lily’s rescue? Faith going off the deep end? Lucinda fighting her daughter for custody? Mike, leaving town out of a sense of guilt? Whatever the outcome, it wasn’t worth the tactic taken to advance the storyline. Shame on you, writers.. SHAME!

The other character making the top of my ‘most annoying list’? Jack Snyder! The devolution of my feelings for Jack moved from: loving the guy, to feeling sorry for him for always throwing love away to save his pride, to becoming tired of his self-righteous prig attitude, and now I’m at the point of simply despising the man most days. Jack, for all of his talk of honesty and loyalty, has YET to be faithful to any woman he’s loved. He’s cheated on every woman he’s dated or married. With Julia1 it was Carly. With Carly it was Julia2, until he ‘betrayed’ Julia2 and went back to Carly. With Katie it was Carly. With Janet, it’s Carly again. Jack kissing Carly, behind Janet’s back? No skin off my nose, but there he is sandwiched between Janet and Carly, telling Carly that she was right about him all along.

Jack’s life is so charmed. Even when he makes mistakes, good things happen to him. I could only take his position, sitting between the two women, as evidence that soon Carly and Janet would end up in some deathmatch cage – beating the unholy hell out of one another with each believing that SHE was the better woman for Jack. Jack would sit back, smiling on the inside/feigning outrage on the outside – and telling the world that he was ‘torn’ between the two women. He always is. Whenever he cheats, it’s noble. He’s torn between two women he “loves”. Any woman who cheats on him? She’s just loose and/or cheap. It must be nice to be Jack Snyder.

Even still, it’s time for the writers to beat back Jack’s cartoonish nature and make him a real man, again. I can only imagine what a relief it would be to see Jack behave like a romantic lead, once more. If I never hear Jack screaming at a woman, see him scowling at her, watch him tear a woman down into nothingness… it will be too soon.